DISABILITIES
as well as less than "perfect" or less than "normal"
health do not negate the importance of health. Be as healthy as it is
possible for you to be. If you are too ill for regular exercise, isolate
various muscle groups and exercise them with repetitive tightening and
releasing. Alternate with tightening, holding, and releasing. Accompany
this with deep breathing and alternate with rapid breathing. If you
cannot actually move the muscles, imagine vividly you are doing so.
Bio-feedback machines demonstrate the strengthening of muscles through
visualization alone.

PRACTICE THE MIND/BODY CONNECTION

A
STUDY by psychologist Dr. R. Vandell demonstrated the connection between
the mind and body and the effectiveness of mental practice. In the study
subjects sat in front of a dart board and imagined throwing darts at
the board. The results showed dart throwing skills were improved to
the same level as if the subjects spent the time physically throwing
the darts.

A
SIMILAR study involved three groups of randomly selected students who
were scored on their basket-throwing ability. Over the 20 days, Group
A engaged in no practice whatsoever. Group B practiced free-throws for
20 minutes every day. Group C spent 20 minutes each day only imagining
they were throwing the ball in the basket. After 20 days, Group A showed
no improvement in their ability to sink a basket. Group B improved their
scoring ratio by 24 percent. Group C improved their scoring ratio by
23 percent.

IN
A MORE DRAMATIC example, Major James Nesmeth cut 20 strokes off his
average golf score while a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. How? During
seven years of imprisonment he visualized himself on his favorite golf
course every day. He imagined himself experiencing everything down to
the smallest detail and he instructed himself as he practiced his swing.
Each time he would watch the ball arc down the freeway as it rolled
to the exact spots he selected. His mental practice kept his sanity
and trained his body to perform on a golf course exactly as he wished
it to.

A
STUDY of 130 patients undergoing colorectal surgery showed those who
listened to guided imagery (visualization) tapes fared much better -
both before and after surgery - than a control group receiving standard
surgical care.

ALL
THOUGHT is visualization and guided imagery because the inner mind thinks
in symbolic pictures then translates these pictures into words. If you
canít "visualize" fill in the details with detailed thought.

EVEN
if you arenít sick, this information is important to you. Deepak Chopra,
M.D.; Andrew Weil, M.D.; John Sarno, M.D.; Richard Gerber, M.D.: Bernard
Lowen M.D.; Gerald Epstein, M.D., - to name a few physicians - have
written powerfully on why they are convinced of the mind/body connection
and how this knowledge can be used to help people with their daily lives.

IN
1979 ELLEN LANGERS, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, conducted
a study of male subjects age 75 or older. They were subjected to a battery
of tests measuring posture, physical strength, manual dexterity, perceptional
cognition, I.Q., short term memory, hearing, sight, taste and finger
length (fingers get shorter when a person ages). The subjects were divided
into two groups and given a ten day vacation at two separate resort
facilities.

THE
CONTOL group engaged in normal resort activities. The second group was
taken back twenty years to 1959 via magazines, radio and television
shows, dress, newspapers, and conversation.

AFTER
TEN DAYS both groups were re-tested. The control group showed improvement
in some areas though half declined in I.Q. tests. Finger length, as
expected, remained the same.

THE
MEN who had been "regressed" to the 1959 experience had improved
in all tests, including I.Q. which was previously thought to be impossible
to improve after a certain age. Most astonishing of all, their fingers
had lengthened!

Proof
aging is greatly influenced by the mind. For a younger body, keep your
mind and your spirit young.

Seek
out spiritual people and listen to their spiritual insights. You donít
have to agree or believe. Simply listen and contemplate.

5. LEARN SELF-HYPNOSIS

CHECK
the yellow pages for a professional hypnotist or hypnotherapist. Call
each of them. Ask if they teach self-hypnosis and how many sessions
this will require. (One to three sessions is average.) Set up free consultations
with those you feel drawn to and while you are there check out their
credentials, which should be posted prominently on the wall. 200 CLASS
Hours (not mail courses) is minimal for hypnotists and 300 CLASS HOURS
(not mail courses) is minimal for hypnotherapists. Ask all the questions
you can think of at this consultation - no question is too silly. Hypnotists
are used to people misunderstanding hypnosis because of years of "misrepresentation"
on stage and screen. For answers to the most commonly asked questions
about hypnosis go to:

THE
ADVANTAGES to learning from a hypnotist are: He or she will be able
to discern - with your feedback - the hypnotic process that works best
for you and help you to know to your satisfaction when you are in hypnosis.
A personalized tape guiding you into self-hypnosis can be made for you
to practice with at home. As with everything else, practice improves
your abilities, in this case your ability to hypnotize yourself any
time, any place.

WHY
hypnosis? It is the fastest , safest means of communicating with your
body and with the many levels of your mind and spirit. Once you have
learned self-hypnosis, seek out a hypnotist/hypnotherapist (if the one
who taught you self -hypnosis cannot do so) to guide you in dialoguing
with these many levels of you.

PRAY & MEDITATE DAILY

EVEN
if you arenít religious or particularly spiritual, pay attention to
your spirit. Why? People who do have less stress, heal faster, report
a greater sense of well-being in the present and greater belief in a
positive future.

THINK
of prayer as talking to the higher spiritual energies or, if you prefer,
talking to your own highest best self.

CONSIDER
mediation tuning into the higher spiritual energies for establishing
a clear channel with your highest spiritual guidance. Pay attention
to your hunches, your intuitions, and your inner knowing. This will
become much clearer with daily meditation. There are many different
methods of meditation, but in general, the simpler the better. What
truly matters is the intent: to lift oneís mind and spirit into the
levels of higher spiritual knowing.

Image, visualize, or think of a spiritual light flowing from higher
levels of spirit through the top of your head into your mindís eye.
Now imagine this spiritual light flowing from your mindís eye to the
Earth, lighting the Earth with spiritual Light.

Focus your mind ONLY on the thought or the vision of Light lighting
the Earth. This is not a time for prayer - spoken or silent. Nor is
it a time for choosing what you wish for the Earth. The greatest prayer
and giving is to be a pure conduit of the Light and the Intelligence
within it, for this Light is CREATOR LIGHT and knows what is best for
the Earth and all upon it.

As a daily conduit of LIGHT, your energies of mind, body, and spirit
will become balanced and attuned to the higher good..

Dr. Hugh Harmon, Ph.D. and Pamela
Chilton, C.Ht. are co-authors with the "Master of Light" for the book
series Odyssey of the Soul met as teacher and student.
They now work together in an extraordinary partnership, offering healing
and hypnosis as a form of therapy. Their understanding of non-physical
realms, numerous modalities of healing and the many levels of human
consciousness is literally "mind boggling" as their many readers, clients
and students can attest.

It is not just the individual
that needs healing. Chilton and Harmon emphasize that the Earth itself
needs spiritual healing, and that the spiritual energy produced by focusing
more individual energy, or prayer, towards healing is exactly what the
Earth needs to regain its balance. "Multiply the human minds focused
on light and the positive effects multiply. Surround the earth with
Light and all the world benefits," say the authors.

Together, Pamela Chilton, C.Ht.
and Hugh Harmon, Ph.D. wrote Odyssey of the Soul -- the
first in a trilogy of spiritually infused books of healing for individuals
and the Earth. The book is recommended as a resource for articles and
interviews about metaphysics, victims of abuse, and people who are ill.
Collectively, the techniques in the book will help impact our world
problems with the environment and other issues.

Contact
information: For expertise interview about using the power of the
Light to heal, contact Call (800) 403-4325. (Ask for Dr. Harmon.) Review
books available on request. E-mail odyssey@odysseyofthesoul.org.
For more detailed information, please visit the official web site: http://www.odysseyofthesoul.org/